Cursed is a movie that had a far more fascinating production than the movie itself, which I found mildly watchable if only for Christina Ricci in the lead.
Cursed
— Collector’s Edition —
(2005)
Genre(s): Horror, Fantasy, Comedy
Shout Factory| PG13/Unrated – 97 min. / 99 min. – $34.98 | May 10, 2022
Date Published: 05/15/2022 | Author: The Movieman
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Shout Factory provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2½/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: In Los Angeles, siblings Ellie (CHRISTINE RICCI) and Jimmy (JESSE EISENBERG) come across an accident on Mulholland Drive. As they try to help the woman caught in the wreckage, a ferocious creature attacks them, devouring the woman and scratching the terrified siblings. They slowly discover that the creature was a werewolf and that they have fallen victim to a deadly curse. Now that they have been sliced by the werewolf’s claws, they will be transformed into werewolves themselves.
Quick Hit Review: Cursed is a yet another movie where the behind-the-scenes drama/chaos would be far more interesting to watch a documentary about than the actual movie. But alas it doesn’t appear anyone cares all that much (compared with, say, Justice League which I’m betting somebody will do a doc about that chaotic production) and the various cuts won’t see the light of day given it’s unknown who the copyright holder is. So we’re left with the movie itself. I found Cursed to be watchable but pretty forgettable. It does feature a nice cast with Christina Ricci (always like seeing her in a leading role), Jesse Eisenberg being pretty normal here, Joshua Jackson, Judy Greer, Michael Rosenbaum along with Shannon Elizabeth, Maya and Portia de Rossi in smaller roles. Acting wise, they’re all fine, though Greer does get hammy in one certain scene, but no real standouts, albeit it’s not that these characters were well written, no surprise given the number of cuts and writers involved.
There was some minor anticipation I assume with Cursed (initially anyway) with horror maestro Wes Craven set to direct (after Pulse production he was to direct was shuttered a few weeks before production) and screenwriter Kevin Williamson would team-up after their successes on Scream and Scream 2. But the studio butted in and thus came a variety of cuts, different endings, cast members coming and going (most notable Skeet Ulrich dropped out after the changes) and other characters were just removed. The end result was a film that really had no soul and despite being a horror-comedy, I really didn’t get any humor out of it, maybe campiness in some sense but humor along the level of the Scream movies, not so much. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3¾/5 |
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This “Collector’s Edition” release comes with a matted slip cover and the interior sleeve is reversible with the Unrated version of the poster artwork; the only difference is it’s red with Unrated written on it. The Theatrical and Unrated Cuts are on their own respective discs. Disc 1 (Theatrical Cut): A Movie That Lives Up to It’s Title (17:57) delves deeper into the behind-the-scenes chaos with editor Patrick Lussier. Behind the Fangs: The Making of Cursed (7:33) is an older featurette from circa 2004/2005 with promotional interviews with the cast (Ricci, Eisenberg, Jackson) and crew (Williamson, Nicotero). The Cursed Effects (6:45) looks at the visual and special effects work Creature Editing 101 (5:32) is a featurette on the editing process with Lussier. Becoming a Werewolf (7:58) is an older featurette “hosted” by Jesse Eisenberg on the make-up process. Theatrical Trailer (1:42) Disc 2 (Unrated Cut): |
VIDEO – 4½/5 |
| Shout Factory releases Cursed onto Blu-ray where, both cuts, receive a new 4K scan of the original camera negative (I wish Shout was like Arrow with more detail). This 1080p high-definition transfer looks rather good, detail is sharp for both close-ups and the more distant shots, colors nicely balanced with some decent colors along with the stark black levels. The natural film grain is still noticeable and there were no noticeable bouts of dirt, dust marks or other flaws. |
AUDIO – 4/5 |
| The disc includes a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. While nothing overly strong, the dialogue did come across the center channel well enough and there was some decent depth with some good ambient noises (for instance, I noticed Ricci’s voice coming from the right channel) while Marco Beltrami’s score was pretty ordinary and unremarkable. |
OVERALL – 3¼/5 |
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Cursed is a movie that had a far more fascinating production than the movie itself, which I found mildly watchable if only for Christina Ricci in the lead. This new “Collector’s Edition” release from Shout Factory does have good video/audio transfers and a solid selection of bonus features. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.